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Journalism of Courage
Anti-doping agencies could soon be allowed more discretion when punishing athletes caught taking banned substances who honestly didn’t intend to cheat.
Delegates at a two-day conference to review the World Anti-Doping Code agreed on the changes yesterday, meaning it is almost certain to be included when the code is updated in November.
“Those athletes that are taking, by mistake, a cold medicine, should be able to get away with it. Until now that’s been difficult,” said Rune Anderson, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s director of standards.
Under WADA’s current code, testing positive for a banned substance for the first time means an automatic two-year suspension. That can be doubled when an athlete shows a pattern of intentional abuse, but now it will also be possible to lessen the punishment or in some cases drop it entirely.
